The text "Dueling Dualism" by Anne Fausto-Sterling claim is that sex and gender are constructed. Scientist construct gender and sex through their research and studies and this creates the way society views sex and gender. Sterling writes, "... human sexuality created by scholars in general and by biologists, in particular, are one component of political, social, and moral struggles about our cultures... At the same time... incorporated into our very physiological being... Biologists...in turn refashion our cultural environment"(Sterling,5). Sterling, sure enough, realizes how sexuality is viewed by biologist but also how it can change the perspectives of sexuality in a society. Biologist have "refashion our cultural environment" and are reshaping …show more content…
In the text "The Sexing of the body" Sterling argues that scientist should not only worry about the physical feature to determine someone's sexuality but also on the characteristics. Sterling writes," But behaviors are generally social activities, expressed in interaction with distinctly separate beings. Thus, as we move from genitalia on the outside to the invisible psyche..."(Sterling, 29). When a scientist steps out of that box of determining gender based on the physical feature it can change the perspective of how gender is viewed in society. In the same way, The Text "Baboons with Briefcases vs Langurs with Lipstick" by Susan Sperling shows how scientist should overlook physical features and DNA to determining what is gender. Sperling writes, "Other things shape behavior besides genes and Shape it in important ways for the organisms in question..."(Sperling, 250). Our behavior can say a lot about the gender we are but Sperling demonstrates that even the behavior aspect of determining gender should be furthered studied. Both of these Authors show how scientist try to construct and validify the our sexuality is already with us and it not constructed by society. When viewing how scientist makes their studies there is some type of biased and gender stereotypes connected to these
To begin, I think it is important to analyze the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Up until researching for this paper, I though that the two terms were interchangeable in meaning, rather, they are separate ideas that are connected. According to Mary K. Whelan, a Doctor of Anthropology focusing on gender studies, sex and gender are different. She states, “Western conflation of sex and gender can lead to the impression that biology, and not culture, is responsible for defining gender roles. This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in. While some may think that another culture is sexist, or dem...
In my mind, dualism is a more attractive view to take when considering the mind-brain issue. The idea that the mind is a separate entity and that it is independent of the physical body is the central point of dualism. One reason it appeals to me is because of my religion, my Catholic upbringing. Introspection is another good reason why dualism is a little more logical to me than materialism.. It logically explains why the mind and brain are separate. Also, the divisibility argument raises good points to allow dualism to appear to be the more attractive idea in my eyes.
There are many different facets to the nature versus nurture argument that has been going on for decades. One of these, the influence of nature and nurture on gender roles and behaviors, is argued well by both Deborah Blum and Aaron Devor, both of whom believe that society plays a large role in determining gender. I, however, have a tendency to agree with Blum that biology and society both share responsibility for these behaviors. The real question is not whether gender expression is a result of nature or nurture, but how much of a role each of these plays.
Dualism is the theory that mind and matter are two distinct things. The main argument for dualism is that facts about the objective external world of particles and fields of force, as revealed by modern physical science, are not facts about how things appear from any particular point of view, whereas facts about subjective experience are precisely about how things are from the point of view of individual conscious subjects. They have to be described in the first person as well as in the third person.
The debate as to the true nature of human beings, the existence of free will and the validity of science is centered on two philosophical theories; dualism and materialism. Under dualism, the proponents believe that there are two kinds of matter that make up human beings which is the physical presence and the non-physical mind or soul . Materialism on the one hand proposes that man and matter is one and the same thing and there cannot be in existence any other non-physical entity therefore . Materialism is one of the major theories that greatly oppose dualism.
In “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” Deborah Blum states that “gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology” (Blum 679). Maasik and Solomon argue that gender codes and behavior “are not the result of some sort of natural or biological destiny, but are instead politically motivated cultural constructions,” (620) raising the question whether gender behavior begins in culture or genetics. Although one may argue that gender roles begin in either nature or nurture, many believe that both culture and biology have an influence on the behavior.
" The Social Construction of Gender" touched on how Western society views gender. This article pointed out historically how women and men appear to be separate species entirely. And that even though physiologically we are similar, male and female, we are of an opposite class. The male and female class should not be labeled how our bodies function for we are all individual and unique. If a scientist views a female to be female based on the fact that physiologically she menstruates, than what is a female that ceased menstruation or never began to? Is she only half woman? Is a male not a ...
The the book introduces the topic by defining sex and gender. Sex refers to the biology of your body, there are two aspects within this concept: primary sex characteristics and secondary characteristics. Primary characteristic is the genitalia which you are born with. Secondary sex characteristics has to do with the hormones; distribution of male and female hormones. Gender on the other hand is a societal concept that comes along with gender roles; which is when society places roles on how each gender should act. This is where sexist stereotypes such as “girls like pink and boys like blue” come about. Gender roles become impacted by other factors such as: religion, class, race, culture to name only a few. Culture and other aspects alter what is perceived as the norm; some cultures recognize an androgynous gender, while the concept is still taboo in many cultures. This chapter, assesses how patriarchy prevails given the fact that gender roles create an environment meant to benefit males more than
As we discuss the articles of Anne Fausto- Streling, “The Five Sexes, Revisited” and Marjorie Garber, “The Return to Biology” in class we came to see how these two articles could bring up such controversy. As they question our perspective on human nature as we have always known it to be, from “The Five Sexes, Revisited” stating “absolute dimorphism disintegrates even at the level of basic biology” (176), to “The Return of Biology” saying “Society mandates the control of intersexual bodies because they blur and bridge the great divide” (184). We see many different aspects on how human biology or culture is more than what meets the eye. All I can begin to say is everything we, as the human species, do revolves around dimorphism no matter the questions or contradictions that may arise. The idea that only two sexes exist is still firmly maintained in our society as how things are suppose to be aka the “norm”.
As regards materialism, the downside of this doctrine is that when materialists attempt to reduce the mental realm to the physical by saying that mental experiences are brain processes, they deny the existence of consciousness, sometimes called ‘qualia’, which is nevertheless a subjective aspect of mental experiences. According to Dualism, having different properties is not the only difference between Mental and Physical realms, a third difference between the two as mentioned earlier is qualitative. Mental happenings have subjective qualities such as what it feels like, looks like or sounds like. Descartes' view claims that material properties could never produce something as perplexing as consciousness or awareness, because such qualities
...heories of performing gender to make this point, Fausto-Sterling is able to point to concrete scientific experiments and explain where they go wrong. And one can conclude from Fausto-Sterling's book that not only do we "do" gender, we also "do" sex and bodies as well.
In reality, gender is not based on one’s genetic make-up or their reproductive organs. Expanding on this, an individual does not have any control over their assigned gender, but everyone has a gender identity, which is one’s internal sense of being male or female. From a sociocultural perspective, gender roles have the greatest influence on gender as a social construction. Gender roles are the attitudes, behaviors, rights, and responsibilities that particular cultural groups associate with each sex. In regards to gender, the social construction theory acknowledges the connection the topic has with power and meaning, and states that social interaction, or “language” controls how these things are portrayed to individuals. Similarly, sexuality is socially constructed in a sense that, one’s sexual orientation depends on what they are taught to be “socially acceptable”. For example, a person who is raised by homophobic parents would most likely be taught that every aspect of homosexuality is wrong, and therefore they would be influenced to be heterosexual. While many would like to believe that people are born with their sexual orientation, that is far from the truth. All in all, when looking at the big picture, it is clear that race, gender,
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
There is no doubt that men and women are influenced by biological factors. The question is are gender roles based on nature, nurture or both? When discussing human sexuality, drives and desires hormones play a substantial role in our behaviors. The physiological differences externally in males and females are obvious. For example, when aroused, males become erect, whereas females become lubricated instead of a clitoral erection. In the article, “Biological Aspects of Sexual Orientation and Identity” Milton Diamond Ph.D. claims “These differences obviously pertain to copulation, but many other mechanisms exist that are less related to coitus but very much related to sexual expression and childbearing. Muscle mass, body and skeletal articulation, enzyme and endocrine production, and other physiological features and reflexes are additional distinctions. The endocrine system of males is relatively tonic in operation, while the female system is basically cyclic during the reproductive years.” Some of these biological factors are thought to shape gender differences due to hormones and brain function. According to “Biological Theories of Gender” Saul McLeod claims that, “The biological approach suggests that there is no distinction between sex and gender, thus biological sex creates gendered behavior.” This theory
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, body hair and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, these are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003). Gender on the other hand refers to the sociological differences between male and female. This is teaching males and females to behave in various ways due to socialisation (Browne, 1998). Example: masculinity and femininity. Girls are supposed to show their femininity by being non-competitive, sensitive, dependent, attractive and placid. If and when some girls don’t succeed in keeping this image they will be referred to as a tomboy. On the other hand, boys show their masculinity through aggression, physical strength...